St. Lawrence Market to open on Sundays as part of revived pilot project

St. Lawrence Market will be rolling out expanded hours this summer as part of a previously planned pilot project that had to be aborted due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

The city had just introduced a pilot project to offer expanded hours at the bustling South Market building in March 2020 but the experiment lasted mere days, as the pandemic forced the city to shift gears and curtail hours in an attempt to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Now, more than two years later, the city has announced plans to revive the pilot project starting July 31.

As part of the pilot, the market will be open on Sundays for the first time and will close two hours later during the week – 7 p.m. rather than 5 p.m.

Its Saturday hours are also being changed from 5 a.m. to 4 p.m. to 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.

"It's very exciting that the St. Lawrence Market will be re-launching expanded hours of operation. I want to thank the many businesses who make the market such a special place," Mayor John Tory said in a press release. "In 2020 we pivoted as COVID-19 impacted previous launch plans, now we are moving forward together with this exciting pilot. The new hours of operation pilot project modernizes the market's operations and ensures that more people – residents and visitors to our city - have the opportunity to experience this amazing, historic Toronto destination."

The city says that in preparing to revive the pilot project staff "collected and re-analyzed feedback from stakeholders" to better understand changes in operations due to COVID-19.

It says that an evaluation of the pilot once complete will "inform a more permanent operating schedule for the remainder of 2023 and beyond."

The new operating hours as of July 31 are as follows: